


out of the garden

by magicmagnus (strangehunger)



Series: good omens au [2]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Good Omens Fusion, Angel!Alec, Angel!Au, Anthology Fic, Creationism?, Good Omens AU, I haven't read the bible since I was like 8, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pining, Pre-Slash, Prequel, Religious Humor, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Slow Burn, angel!magnus, coworkers to enemies to friends to lovers, here we go again, potential good omens spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-04
Updated: 2019-06-04
Packaged: 2020-04-07 21:20:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19093363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strangehunger/pseuds/magicmagnus
Summary: The story of Magnus (a flirtatious demon with a heart of gold) and Alec (a somewhat rude and antisocial angel), spun over their six millennia on earth. Together, the two have aided in the creation of the universe, seen civilizations rise and fall, experienced the great tragedies and miracles of human history -- and yet it just might take an apocalypse to bring them together.A series of one-shots and flashbacks preceding my Good Omens AU,above and below.





	out of the garden

**Author's Note:**

> So... have we all watched Good Omens yet?
> 
> I first published above and below, my Good Omens AU, about two years ago. Ever since, I have been collecting scraps of fic here and there with the intent of publishing a story like this one, but (as those of you who follow me may know) -- I procrastinate. After watching the phenomenal Good Omens TV adaptation, I was inspired to finally start fleshing those fics out and start publishing them! 
> 
> If you haven't seen Good Omens TV -- there will be minor spoilers in here. If you haven't seen the show or read the book, I don't think it's necessary to enjoy the story! And while I highly recommend you read the primary work in my series before reading this one, again -- it's not necessary, though it might explain some of the irreverent tone. 
> 
> I really hope you enjoy! As always, please stop by and reach out to me at [magicmagnus](magicmagnus.tumblr.com) on tumblr if you want to scream about Shadowhunters, Good Omens, or both.

**the very beginning**   


In the beginning, there was nothing.

It didn’t last long. 

On the first day, there was light. God carved the light from the darkness, casting the two apart, and from them were born the day and the night. 

Next came the firmament, and then the next day, the earth and the seas. Vegetation crawled over the surface of the earth, grass and seed rippling across the continents, and the waters carved their way beyond the land. It was the golden age of both, as “seasonal allergies” and “seasonal flooding” hadn’t been invented yet.

It was, though Alec would never say it aloud, a rather rude awakening. One moment, there had been a vast nothingness, an empty eternity stretching out around them, and then suddenly, the universe had been flooded with light. The angels were accustomed to nothingness. It was nice -- easy to keep neat and tidy, required  _ very  _ little paperwork. Light was alright, in those early days before Alec was issued with a human body. Thousands of years down the line, he would be incredibly relieved when humanity finally invented sunglasses. 

One does not become the Supreme Creator without a bit of Supreme Delegation, and the angels were tasked with laying the ground on the Lord’s blueprints.  The angel Isabelle splashed ponds onto the surface of the earth, threaded sections of water into great rivers, trailing tributaries, dainty creeks. Across the world, the angel Jace pushed the earth together, pulling it up into great mountain peaks that trailed over the earth’s surface. The universe buzzed with Creation, and Alec stood in a crescent of fertile land, his (newly acquired) feet dug into the burning sand, and carpeted the ground with thick, lush grass. He summoned fruit-laden trees from the ground, trailed vines down from their branches. In the evenings, he worked his way through a thick stack of paperwork.

On the fourth day came the sun, the moon, and the stars. Alec was starting to get tired. 

He stared out at the vast expanse of blackness around him, broken through here and there by pin-pricks of pale light. Alec had been under the assumption that separating light from the darkness was a pretty definite thing, but God Works in Mysterious Ways, so he and the other angels were now tasked with populating the night sky, splattering stars, nebulas, galaxies across the universe. 

It was cold, out in space. Alec had never noticed before, but now that he had felt the warmth of sand sifting between his toes. That was the first of many earthly pleasures for Alec, not that he realized it at the time. 

He aimlessly blinked stars into existence, scattering them randomly across the universe. Isabelle was a bit more methodical -- she laid them out in what she called “constellations”, drawing great beasts and musical instruments and kitchen utensils in the dark matter of the universe. “Killing two birds with one stone,” she told Alec with a wink. Aline crafted a planet made entirely of diamond, then flung it so far from the earth that Alec wondered if they would ever be able to find it. The angels  drew circles of neighboring planets around the earth, all of them paling in comparison to the earth, God’s crowning jewel. 

Alec fanned an asteroid belt into the blackness here, hurtled a comet across the galaxy there. It was easy to get carried away in Creation, to continue to hammer the pieces into place. The heavens, the earth, the dark expanse of the universe -- Alec wasn’t one to ask many questions, but he did find himself wondering what it was all for. From the beauty of Isabelle’s glittering constellations to the horrible awe of Jace’s black hole, they were crafting it for…. something. Someone.  

He spun a star into existence, then frowned. The red dwarf hovered in front of him. In his ever shifting form, the star seemed both immense and miniscule, both a massive ball of gas and a single speck in the universe. Alec orbited the star, frowning. It was smaller than he intended. 

“Nice one.”

Alec looked up, surprised. The majority of the others had scattered across the universe already, populating newborn galaxies with stars. Alec had yet to leave the Milky Way. He hadn’t noticed the approach of another angel, too carried away by his own thoughts and crafting. He dragged his attention from the burning ball of red gas to the angel in front of him. 

“Magnus,” Alec said, his tone the polite, impersonal greeting of one colleague to another.  “How has it been, in, um….?” His voice trailed off. Though they were colleagues, and technically within the same department, the two had never been close. Not out of any ill will, they just…. ran with a different crowd. 

“Oh, I’ve been over in Andromeda,” Magnus said, sweeping a grand gesture toward the other galaxy. Everything was grand with Magnus. One of the brightest and most beautiful of all, he had a knack for creation in a way that Alec occasionally struggled to summon within himself. “Have you been?”

Alec shook his head. “Not yet,” he said. “What’s it like?”

“Big,” Magnus said. “Very bright. I think I like this one better, though. It’s got more…” he struggled for the words, before finally settling on, “character.” He flashed a smile at Alec. “You did Saturn?” 

Alec flushed. He gave the red dwarf a spin, the gases licking at his overturned palm. “I, uh, yeah. I had some help.”

“And the rings?”

“That was me.” 

“Nice touch,” Magnus said, mouth curved into a sly smile. He passed a hand over the red dwarf, and it grew brighter in color, slightly warmer to the touch. Alec stood still behind him, trying to pass off the way he was transfixed by the other angel’s simple movements. “I loved the flair. And this is….?

“Oh, this?” Alec gave the star a light push, watched it bob further away. He gave a quiet snort. “It’s nothing.” 

Magnus’ gaze flitted toward the star. It pulsed brightly in the black vacuum of space. Even light years away, it still paled in comparison to the golden blaze of the sun. Magnus turned to look at Alec and said, simply, “It’s beautiful.” 

“Oh, I -- uh -- thanks.” Sin, and therefore pride, had not been invented yet, but  _ humility  _ certainly had. Alec felt himself growing uncomfortable at the praise. “It’s not much, I just…” He gestured vaguely at the stars, flung far across the dark expanse. “They’re all so far away,” he said, simply. “I wanted one just a little bit…closer.” 

“Why?”

Alec paused. He turned, cast a look back at the earth. It was light years away, but he could still clearly see the flat face of that pale dot hanging in the void, a breath of light and life cut into the blackness. Massive yet miniscule, it seemed… so vulnerable. So lonely. 

“I’m not sure,” Alec said quietly. He couldn’t say it out loud, it seemed… heretical. Vulnerable as it seemed, he knew with certainty that God would protect it. What for, Alec didn’t know -- it wasn’t his place to know. He flicked his fingers, restless to draw something else into the expanse of space. “I just wanted to.” 

Magnus followed his gaze, absentmindedly humming a melody. Years, centuries, millenia down the line, when the two of them were settled on earth and Alec was frustratedly shuffling through the radio and cursing every asinine, offensive pop song that blared through Magnus’ flashy car, he would suddenly remember that hum. It was the first time Alec had heard anything like music. Unsurprisingly, Hell would eventually boast all the best composers. 

“Don’t you wonder what it’s all for?” 

Alec froze. “What do you mean?”

“It’s just…..” Magnus made a vague gesture, wide enough to encompass the entirety of the created universe. “Do you think there’s a reason? Do you think She’s just bored?”

Hypotheticals. Questions. There were quite a few of them these days, where before it had just been…. paperwork. Obedience. They could get an angel into a lot of trouble -- not that neither of them knew that  _ now _ , but they would all learn of it in the coming days. Hypotheticals became questions, questions became interrogations, interrogations became argumentation. In a few short days, God would form the first humans, crafting them in Her own image, and the seed of discord that had been embedded among the celestial ranks would blossom into rebellion. Angels would toppel from the heavens, plummeting past the earth, into the depths of Hell. 

(That was only one side of the story, Magnus always maintained. For his two cents, he had never considered his Fall to be an actual  _ fall.  _ He had just sort of…. sauntered vaguely downwards.)

Alec didn’t know any of that yet. Neither did Magnus. When it came to the great cosmic game God played with the universe, the two of them -- like their brethren, like the humans, like every living thing that would soon come to flourish across the green Earth -- were essentially blindfolded and gagged, hands bound under the table. 

“I’m not sure,” Alec said. “Who are we to question Her Plans?”

Magnus fixed him with an unreadable gaze. “But don’t you wonder?”

“No,” Alec said, honestly. They were angels. Instruments of the Lord, they were not ones to question the Great Plan, only to put it into motion, to spin the wheels and oil the cogs of Her great machine. 

Silence unfurled between the two of them, the extreme silence of an empty universe. Magnus drew a hand up, swirling his fingers through the empty void, drawing matter into being with each movement. “I do,” he said. The words were quiet, but they cracked open a rift in Alec, a deep crater of curiosity that, no matter how he tried to conceal it, he would never be able to close. He could feel the question rising in him -- one word,  _ Why?  _ \-- overwhelming his being. He would never voice those words aloud, but he could feel them. Why? What is it all for?

A foreign feeling rippled through him. Fear. Fear of himself, fear of something vast and unknowable -- fear of God herself. 

He wanted to flee -- from Magnus, from that inquisitive nature. Much, much later, he might see the amusement in this. A part of him had wanted to stay, to hear Magnus out, and a greater part had wanted to run far, far away. And yet he would spend the rest of his existence chasing Magnus, the two of them caught in a great dance of good and evil across the millennia. 

“Would you lend me a hand, Alexander?” Magnus asked, before Alec could make his escape. “I have an idea.” A star was forming between his palms, a great ball of yellow light illuminating the empty space between the two of them. His mouth quirked into a smile, the pure joy of creation radiating over his features. He flicked his gaze to Alec and Alec, like an orbital body, drew in close. 

“What are you trying to do?”

“You make one too,” Magnus said. 

Alec did as he was told. He wasn’t necessarily sure  _ why _ , except maybe that he was an angel, and was accustomed to doing as he was told. With a flex of his fingers, he drew a star into being. It flared, larger and brighter than the red dwarf that hovered closest to them. 

“Bigger,” Magnus said. 

Time moved differently, in those early days. An angel could fit oneself into the gaps between seconds, into the finest particles of time. The single planck it took for them to draw the stars into creation seemed to stretch out like an eternity. Once you got the hang of it, it was easy -- just a shift in reality, a small twitch of the fingers to draw Something out of Nothing, to create a ball that radiated  bright enough to be seen from light years away. 

The star between Magnus’ hands grew larger. The two were close enough that Alec could feel the warm lick of gas against his fingers, yet could not tell which sun the warmth came from. He grew transfixed, gaze focused on the star that coalesced from Magnus’ form, growing until it was brighter bigger even than the Sun. He stilled, the star between his own hands growing -- not quite the size of the Sun, nor Magnus’ star, but still immense, a sphere of golden orange that flared brightly. 

“Let go,” Magnus whispered, pulling his own hands back. 

And Alec did. He watched, transfixed, as the star slid into a slow orbit around the other. The two settled together, close enough that they would appear as one on from the earth’s surface. They were almost unmoving in those seconds, and yet Alec couldn’t help but wonder how they would form, how they would dance around one another for the rest of time. 

“A binary system.” 

“What?” Alec pulled his attention from the stars to Magnus. Magnus, who had created one of the largest stars in the universe, for -- for what? Here, far beyond the sun, the earth an imperceptible dot in the distance, he had left something great, something beautiful. 

Magnus shifted, moving to Alec’s other side, and drew a hand through the air. “The two stars will be like one,” he said. “Orbiting one another.” He idly waved his hand, idly casting minor planets into the universe with each of his fluid movements. One of them spun past the newly formed sun, tail forming as it went, and hurdled past the two of them a comet. 

“Why?”

“Why not?”

Alec pursed his lips. Magnus shrugged. 

“Doesn’t it seem…” his voice trailed off. He cast a gaze at the red dwarf, and then beyond. His gaze skimmed past the sun, the earth, the created planets. Somewhere out there, the angels, were still spinning new nebulas between one another, pushing black holes into being and dropping moons into orbits. “Doesn’t it seem lonely?” He said, at length. 

Silently, Alec considered Magnus’ words. He said nothing, but an undercurrent of understanding ran between the two of them, and Alec felt that Magnus wasn’t simply referring to these strange satellites out on the edge of the universe. He contemplated the earth, the way its pale face seemed to tremble with vulnerability. It was cold up here. 

Alec’s gaze dipped back to the stars. Magnus was right. The way they seemed to blend together, locked in a tight orbit -- almost as if one.

“It’s beautiful,” Alec said quietly. 

A smile stretched across Magnus’ face, brilliant enough to rival the stars rotating before them. “I should hope so, Alexander,” Magnus said, teasing lilt to his voice. “It’s going to cost me plenty in paperwork, after all.” 

**Author's Note:**

> This was -- obviously -- inspired by Crowley's comment that he helped craft Alpha Centauri. I've got a couple one-shots spinning around, but could never figure out what to publish first. With the addition of that subplot and comment in the TV series, everything fell into place! I hope you enjoyed this one, cliche name and all. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it! Please let me know what you thought, or what else you might like to read in this universe! And, once again, hit me up on [tumblr](magicmagnus.tumblr.com) to chat! Thank you very much to my dear friend Brittany for beta-ing <3


End file.
